A battlestar is effectively a battleship with two flight pods for fighter/bomber operations bolted to the sides. They are intended for independent long range use for patrol duties. Capable of staying away for years on end without resupply. Although it is not uncommon to operate in fleets of battlestars, be it with older Jupiter class (galactica), Valkyrie or Mercury class ships. She is capable of producing her own fighters and ammunition, keeping her supplied in the long term.The ships are very durable and can continue fighting even after suffering extensive heavy damage. Ever the older Jupiter class Galactica kept on going, even after years of battle without chance of relief and/or repairs in dry-dock; and Invictus is significantly up-armoured from a Jupiter. Although, significantly more powerful weapons will be testing her hide in the Gothic Sector.

The old and outdated Jupiter Class (battlestar Galactica was a Jupiter class)

Battlestars generally travel relatively slowly, but can move fast if needed. However they are very manoeuvrable and can turn on a proverbial dime. The ship’s FTL drive (faster than light, or Jump drive) gives the ship the capability to jump to a set of coordinates almost instantaneously without the use of the Warp, wormhole or similar means of Faster Than Light travel. This does however have to be done with extensive calculation beforehand as errors can cause the ship to end up anywhere and everywhere. This includes jumping inside stars, asteroid fields, planets etc. A non-calculated jump, or blind jump, is possible, but is very risky because of the given reason. This is action is generally frowned upon and regarded as a last resort, when remaining in position for calculations makes losing the ship imminent. Only few commanders have ever attempted this. The jump system is very accurate however and is capable of placing the ship relatively close to a planet and in geosynchronous orbit.

The Mercury Class battlestar: the next generation battlestar that Invictus is scaled up and upgraded from.

Protection:Battlestar type armour. Inspired by and improved from the newer Mercury class, capable of taking multiple nuclear blasts in rapid succession without failing. Even at point blank ranges.ECM and ECCM (electronic counter measures and anti-hacking) equipment.

Sensors:Improved Dradis Active/Passive sensor systems.Infrared and multispectral passive detection system.If a ship flies by at normal speeds it can be detected without giving it away by sensor radiation. This allows for passive recon and detection.

Havoc Class Raider

Considered a 'glass cannon' among rouge traders, navy personnel and pirates universally: this ship is very poorly protected but well armed. The Havoc class is appropriately 2K in length and armed with a large array of prow weapon batteries and a pair of powerful plasma weapon batteries on each broadside.She is similar in capabilities to the Sword in terms of speed, but heavier firepower and significantly easier to kill (having only civilian grade armour protection and often faulty or incomplete void shield equipment).

Some Imperial Navy modifications feature fully operational military-grade void shields and heavier armour, but often at the expensive of some of her firepower. Making these Havoc's very similar indeed to the much more reliable and trusted Sword Class Frigates.

Claymore Corvette

Very small and very fast, only 900 metres in length, these ships are rarely used by their parent fleet (the Imperial navy) due to their tiny armament and very poor protection.They are hard to spot, hard to hit and very easy to build and repair. These ships are used as scouts and observers for pirate warlords (in a similar fashion to the way they served the IN) and in massed assaults on convoy operations.Still see widespread use with battlefleet Calixis in the Imperial Navy, however.

Tempest assault frigate

Tempest is a strange escort in a few way. For one she is huge, about a third larger than the Sword Class, and has prow armour that wouldn't be out of place on a light cruiser. She is armed with a battery of short range melta pulsar Weapon Batteries on each side of the ship, as well as one of the fairly typical laser based Weapon batteries mounted dorsally in a single turret. She is also unique among escorts for having limited carrier capacity in the form of a single squadron of assault boats, as well as boarding equipment and a full compliment of ratings and boarding personnel.

The ship was designed by Battlefleet Calixis to combat pirate operation. The idea was that the weaker weapons normally found on pirate vessels (like on the Iconoclast-Class Destroyer and, to a lesser extent, the Havoc Class Frigate) would be unable to kill the frigate due to her heavier armour, and unable to outrun the ship in a straight line, firing her dorsal laser battery while in pursuit. Then the ship could be left crippled burning after a single broadside form the melta pulsars or, if the cargo was sufficiently large or important, board the criminal ship and retake any cargo that may have been stolen.

This ship proved so effective in this role that the ship began seeing use against large threats to the Imperium. Although the ship was mostly useless in defensive operations, due to her incredibly short range and poor broadside and rear armour, she proved very deadly in any offence. Able to close the distance quickly and do heavy damage, even to ship many times her size, with a mix of boarding actions and Melta pulsar bolts.

Venom/Viper Class sloop

The Viper and Venom class sloops where developed by battlefleet Calixis for system defence, scouting and anti-ordnance duties. They have powerful augur arrays and engines for their size (the smallest registered warships developed by the navy, both being around 700 metres in length), allowing them to quickly get into position to detect enemy ships and extrat themselves quickly without being detected.The Viper is equipped with large arrays of turbo laser batteries along the spine and belly of the ship, while the Venom is equipped with mainly missile banks. These weapons are largely useless in ship-to-ship engagements but are excellently well suited for shooting down small strike craft and incoming torpedoes.

As can be seen, the craft has a savage armament of 12 lascannons. These are the same heavy-duty weapons equipped to vehicles on the ground, but up-sized and overcharged to increase range and punching power. She also has 2 HellStorm missile pods with 9 missiles in each. These can fire either anti Ordnance Cluster munitions or melta/plasma missiles for dealing with enemy shipping. Some variants have these replaced with heavier anti shipping armaments.

Each Fury has a crew of 2: a pilot and a gunnery officer. Gunnery officer in the nose, pilot in the cockpit. (Astropath and enginseer for long range missions. Warp Capable for special missions or last ditch attempts to return home).

Typical Fury tactics involve mass volley fire into enemy formations with its heavy Laser armament and missiles. Formations of fighters for both the Chaos and Orks are significantly larger, and can suffer such losses before closing the distance, while Eldar fighters can dodge the majority of what’s thrown at them. While Furys are immensely powerful, they are not very nimble, they are heavy fighters by trade as opposed to dog fighters like the Chaos Swift Death fighters. While they move in small squadrons, they can, however, easily annihilate squadrons many times the size of their own from long range; using superior speed to hopefully zoom right past them and make another run. Zoom-and-boom style.

Starhawk Bomber

These are the staple bombers of the Imperium. They are roughly 120 metres in length, carry a crew of 10-15, and pack enough punch to crack open the hulls of even the largest warships with ease. Each StarHawk has a full armament of: 2 chin-mounted twin-linked lascannons in a gunner-operated ball mount, 2 (1 dorsal and 1 under the tail) twin-linked multi-laser turret (also gunner operated), 2 wing mounted twin-linked heavy bolter turrets (pilot controlled) and bomb deck that can carry either a pair of torpedos (melta, plasma or vortex warheads), 50 anti-shipping missiles (larger variants of the 18 that can be launched from the Fury) or 20 plasma bombs (essentially really big plasma bombs taken to their targets via rocket).The remaining crew are the co-pilot, enginseers and targeteers.

Not much to be said other than its terrible mobility but amazing point defence capacity.Normally deploy in squadrons of 3, with a Fury or two to act as escort and add their own torps/missiles to the volley of anti shipping projectiles that they can fire. Again, this is very different to the Chaos Doom Fire bomber which is a fast light bomber with very little PD but massive squadron sizes.

Faustus Interceptor

These craft were created as advanced scouts and heavy interceptors for the Imperial Navy alongside the Fury. Initial variants of the Fury, after entering widespread service, lacked missiles or Warp capability; much like their predecessor the Wrath. The Imperium, now realising the severely depleted numbers of Thunderhawks and Stormravens could no longer fill the heavy interceptor role or perform recon for the Navy, where desperate for a craft to fill the capability gap. The Mechanicus was presented with a request for a Heavy fighter that was heavily armed and armored and could perform warp jumps and forward reconnaissance for the navy. The idea being that the Fury would fill a purely fighter role.

The resulting craft technically fit the requirements exactly. While she was exceptionally large for a fighter craft (at around 100 Metres in length), she was very heavily armoured and armed: being equipped with 4 autocannons (2 per wing tip), 2 lascannons (1 per wing tip), a plasma cannon (in the nose) and 2 HellStorm missile pods with 10 missiles in each (one per wing tip). She could also carry heavier anti shipping missiles (a total of 12), plasma bombs (a total of 5) or a single torpedo under her wings and against her belly. Making her the first and only true fighter bomber the Imperium ever produced.

She had a crew of 3: the Pilot (who doubled as the targeteer for the bombs or torp), a co-pilot and an Astropath who was seated separately above and behind the cockpit.

The ship did however have flaws. For one, she was slow, she manoeuvred more like a bomber than a fighter: slow speed, lumbering, slow to react to threats and utterly incapable of dog-fighting and had no point defence to defend herself if a fighter got on her tail. This lead to the Faustus being phased out of active service as larger, updated, models of the Fury where Warp capable and carried their own missiles (albeit less of them). However, many veteran pilots of the Faustus were reluctant to transfer over to the newer Furies, as the firepower and versatility of the Faustus together with its ability to weather a savage battering made it a fond favourite for some.For this reason, despite officially not being in front-line use, some battle fleets still field a small number of these as bomber-escorts and long-range recon craft.

In the Gothic War, a significant number were reactivated for use. Pilot opinions were mixed. While the abnormally large and unresponsive fighters just seemed like las-bait to some, to others the firepower, durability and versatility of the platform made them very quickly develop a bond with the craft: arguing you were more likely to get back home at the helm of an old and reliable Faustus then a new and flimsy Fury.

Shark Assault Boat

These things are fairly large (55 metres) and ungainly, but very tough. The most common variant having only a pair of forward facing lascannons and Melta breaching charges, having only a pilot as a permanent crew. The Interior of the ship is exactly half and half: half engine and half troop space. The Shark can go significantly faster than most fighters, so 3 of them with an escort of 2 or 3 Furies will rush forward after the Furries have fired cluster munitions and attempt to rush passed the scattered fighters and breach the hull of the enemy ship, once past very few strike craft being able to catch them.Other variants are more like a bomber than a fighter and have a heavy PD armament as well as much larger troop compliments (largest variants being 150 metres in length).

Once they reach a hull, the melta breaches break in and the crew is dislodged into the enemy ship. The ship also has a pair of internal Heavy Bolter turrets to act as initial suppression fire and (hopefully) prevent the capture of the assault boat so they can attempt an extraction after a successful boarding.

Only Battleships carry these ships and normally very few of them (an Oberon, having the lowest capacity among battleships, most likely has 6: 2 squadrons) and offensive boarding is very unpopular in the Imperial Navy, the ships more often being used to send assistance in enforcing discipline on other IN vessels and inspecting hulks/deploying troops to disabled enemy warships.

Wrath Class Fighter

pictured is an avenger, she’s the down-sized atmospheric strike fighter similar to how the Wrath may have looked: Same general layout and weapon systems being present.

The Wrath served with the Legiones Astartes and the Imperial Army in the Great Crusade era, but even at that time she was an aged and unreliable design. She was large (70 metres long) and featured a wing design that permitted maximum weapon load for minimum space taken up. Her wings could also be folded up, so they could be packed into carriers in a great concentration. She was also well armed, a brutally powerful Vulcan Mega Bolter slung under her nose and 6 lascannons (3 on each wing). Some variants had the Mega Bolter replaced by a Plasma cannon to solve jamming issues, and range limitations in void combat, with the mega bolter however.

The Wrath also had several fatal shortcomings. For one, she was not very fast or mobile. Some reporting they struggle to keep up with bombers, although how much of this is exaggeration can’t be verified. The Imperium at the time tried to rectify the issue by giving her a rear-gunner. But this just made her a ‘couple's coffin’ as pilots of the Imperium not so affectionately named it.The ship also had terrible technical faults. Argurs sometimes shutting off due to the power that had to be diverted to the nose-weapon. The Vulcan Mega Bolter shaking itself free of its casing and destroying the fighter mid-flight in prolonged fights, the plasma weapon not being much better as a substitute as it occasionally exploded or got hot enough to melt through the floor under the pilot. A particularly unpleasant way to die. Also steering would sometimes be disconnected from the pilot's control, leaving them immobile for several seconds.

Most of these more crippling issues were weeded out by the time of the Horus Heresy, but it's reputation was ruined and it was clearly outclassed by the Eldar Raptor and DarkStar fighters. Two designs were submitted to replace her, one was rejected and would later be modified to become the Chaos SwiftDeath fighter, the other was the Fury. The Fury was produced as the alternative initially but was was superior in every department over the Wrath, resulting in its replacement in active service for the Fury. Very few of the Wraths still exist, but its legacy lives on in the Avenger strike fighter craft, which is perfect for skimming close to the ground, killing low-flying enemy fighters and supporting ground-troops by destroying hard targets.

A number where reactivated for the Gothic War, saw limited service and combat performance was very mixed.

Aquila Class lander shuttle

These are fairly large (55 metres in length, and roughly that again in maximum wing span) and lightly armed/armoured craft used by the navy to transport personnel and materials from ship-to-ship and ship-to-planet on a small or individual scale. The design is a very old one, having been virtually unchanged since the days of the Great Crusade and still remains one of the most reliable and enduring craft designs in Navy service. She features an improved aurgur array for detecting threats early in the form of incoming fighters or ground forces, an observation deck and a single semi-traversal auto cannon mounted in it's nose for limited self defence.The Aquila also has folding wings, which make landing easier, but can also allow for emergency manoeuvres and surprising bouts of speed if the lander is threatened.

For the reason for her strong argur equipment and high potential speed, she is sometimes used as an advanced scout by the navy: able to quickly get in, provide accurate readings of enemy troop or fleet movements, and extract themselves before attracting unwanted attention.

Arvus Lighter

This is the smallest craft the Navy makes regular use of. It is a lander and light transport, like the Aquila, but is much smaller to allow for it to function in much tighter environment (with non-carrier warships' docking bays, tight valleys and asteroid bases). The craft is only around 20 metres in total length. This does make the craft a hard target, especially since its double thrusters and stout shape permit the craft excellent speed and mobility as well as a high lifting capacity, but this advantage is needed as she is almost totally reliant on line-of-sight due to her short ranged and basic argur equipment: a limitation of her size.

The mobility and speed, however, do mean that pirates and some Imperial battlefleets convert them into combat fighters by adding a pair of auto cannons or lascannons to the otherwise unarmed vessel; attaching the weapon systems to hard points under the short wings of the Arvus. however, her inability to carry missiles does limit her range, only really being effective in tightly confined areas and short ranges.

Viper Mk II

The Viper Mk II is a single seat Space Superiority Fighter capable of atmospheric flight. This fighter proved to be a capable vehicle, and is regarded as instrumental in ensuring that the Colonials did not lose during the First Cylon War. Although the Mk II was succeeded in service by the larger and more advanced Mk III, and later the Mk VII, she was still used by the military up to and following the Armistice. Some units were still active, mainly as reserve, even after 40 years after the war.

The Mark II is a long, sleek vehicle specialized for zero-G and atmospheric combat and reconnaissance. The forward section comprises the nose back to the cockpit. This section houses the forward RCS systems for maneuvering the craft, the forward landing gear, the main avionics and sensor packages plus the cockpit. The stern comprises the main engines, numerous RCS jets, fuel tanks, wings and the vertical Stabilizer. The wings contain Kinetic Energy Weapons (KEWs), their ammo and ammo feeds. Mounting points beneath the wings allow for missiles, ammo pods and other items to be mounted.The wing-roots contain the retractable landing gear, the intakes just behind the cockpit. The port and starboard intakes contain small but powerful reverse thrust engines which can quickly counter a vipers forward momentum when needed.

The viper Mk II is initially designed to resist cylon attempts at wirelessly disabling or damaging its flight controls. There are many analog gauges and controls present with the intention that the pilot was to fly the plane without the aid of computers. However a central flight computer is present to manage flight systems. Gauges like the altimeter are only used in atmospheric flight.

Each viper is equipped with a full DRADIS sensor package, enabling long range scanning and missile guidance. Each fighter is outfitted with an AN/ALRQ-325 Electronic Warning system.

The Mark II is equipped with two 800 rd. Thraxon MEC-A6 35mm Mass Accelerator Cannons (MECS), as it's primary weapon. These cannons are capable of firing 20 rounds per second and are augmented with orange tracers, which enable the pilot to see where the rounds are going, and adjust their aim accordingly.These cannons are supplemented with a storage bay capable of holding up to eight Lightning Javelin missiles capable of carrying conventional or up to 50 megatons of nuclear tipped warheads.Vipers are generally launched out of a Battlestars launch tubes. Once loaded in one, it takes only seconds for a viper to enter the battlefield.

Viper Mk VII

The Viper MkVII is similar to the Mk II, although the former is more advanced than the latterCapable of atmospheric flight, the Mark VII is the front-line variant of the Viper design, retaining the Mark II's general layout but adding fully integrated avionics that provide superior battle management and flight information for the pilot.

The Mark VII cockpit is almost totally computerized. There are far fewer analog gauges and more reliance is placed on a powerful central flight computer. This gives the Mark VII pilot far greater control of the fighter as well as, presumably, greater targeting control in a dogfight.

However, the latest and last software upgrade, the CNP upgrade, introduces a fatal flaw (inserted by a Cylon agent) in the Mark VII that leads to the virtual annihilation of most of these fighters in the opening wave of the Cylon attack. The surviving Mark VII fighters are retrofitted to older avionics packages to replace the compromised CNP programme and eliminate further cylon infiltration. This makes the craft slightly harder to fly, as it is a Fly-By-Wire craft.The Mk VII is equipped with more advanced DRADIS sensors than her Mk II predecessor, providing with better detection and engments can be carried out at longer ranges.

The Mark VII's main weapons are three forward-facing cannons, two in the wings and one in the vertical stabilizer. Typically, it is only the wing-mounted cannons that are used. Like the Mark II, it can also be armed with missiles.The Viper Mark VII has primary and secondary hydraulics, the secondary system presumably acting as a redundant backup for mission-critical prime system. Damage to both systems does not significantly compromise the Viper's performance as a space combat craft, provided the pilot is sufficiently skilled to manage the changed flight characteristics. The consequences of the loss of both systems in atmospheric flight would undoubtedly be far more dire.

Viper MkIIE 'Strike Viper'

The Viper MkVIIE is an assault variant developed by Epaphus Fleet Systems for a capital ship assault support role. The VIIe has an expanded two-seat canopy for the addition of a weapons officer, a reinforced spaceframe, and expanded primary and secondary ordnance capacity.Although less manoeuvrable than the MKVII, the VIIE has a higher thrust-to-weight ratio, enabling greater top speed. Designed to deploy pinpoint ordnance against the subsystems of capital ships, a powerful FLIR/TADS system developed to defeat Cylon electronic countermeasures replaces what would normally mount the third KEW on the MkVII chassis. This in addition of ECM equipment mounted in the pod. The Mark VIIE can declaw a Cylon basestar, enabling Raptors and Battlestars to land their killing blow.She is slightly larger than the regular Mk VII, coming to 11.3 meters. In addition to this, the Strike Viper is heavily armored in colonial terms, which adds to her lessened manoeuvrability.

Capable of carrying and firing large Anti-ship missiles, which regular vipers can’t mount, or a very large array of nuclear tipped warheads.

Colonial Raptor

The raptor is usually crewed by two members, a pilot and an ECO for systems management.The craft is controlled by Fly-By-Wire and is capable of space and atmospheric flight and incorporates a short-range FTL jump drive. Due to its size and shape it is not launched from launch tubes, but deployed from the main flight-pod. The craft is a mainstay in the colonial forces because of its versatility. The raptor can undertake short- and medium range scans to detect other vessels, scan planetary surfaces for signs of life, energy signatures or mineral deposits. Furthermore it can jump ahead of the mothership and scout the surrounding area for hostile forces. The ship is also used in Search & Rescue ops.

Raptors are usually unarmed as they are poor as a general-purpose fighter. They can carry weapons in an internal bay as well on hardpoints. The craft can carry nuclear missiles, bombs/ammo pods, quad racks of missiles, rocket batteries, dual KEW miniguns. Defensively the craft carries decoy drones, Comms drones, flares and chaff. This in addition that a raptor is harder to detect due to its general shape.

SwiftDeath Fighter

Very small by 40K standards (at only about 20 metres in length) and lightly armed with only 4 lascannon (two per wing) as a total armament, they are extremely fast and mobile as well as being deployed in numerous squadrons of many craft from their carriers.While a Fury can chew apart a Swift Death from a great distance, a Swift Death can very easily outmanoeuvre and their squadrons can overwhelm the almost always surrounded and outnumbered Imperial strike craft. Some larger variants (never larger than 40 metres) do also carry missiles and more powerful lascannon armaments. These are particularly deadly interceptors to bombers, but their larger size make them easy prey for a Fury.

Swift Deaths have a crew of only one: the pilot, and they are sometimes permanently infused with the fighter making their reaction speeds and aggression very unnatural when they get into dogfights. It’s not unusual for damaged Swift Death fighters to attempt to suicidally ram the nearest strike craft or war ship, be it friend or foe, just to ensure the carnage continues.

The average Chaos carrier can carry upto a hundred Swift Death fighters in squadrons of 5-8. Many more can be carried on Heavier Carriers and battleships.

DoomFire Bomber

Much like the all chaos strike craft, they are small (roughly 60 metres long) and lightly armed (only a single chin-mounted Multi Laser turret for defence) but fast and nimble while deploying in great numbers. Compared to the StarHawk, she is pathetic. She has virtually no defence against fighters and a payload which is barely a third of the Imperial (a Single torpedo warhead, 20 missiles or 8 plasma bombs): but she can move just as fast as any fighter in a straight line, something the StarHawk could only dream of doing.Not only that, but Chaos does have heavy bomber variants (100 metres length) of the Doomfire that can carry almost as many armaments as the StarHawk and still claim to have much greater speed than the lumbering Imperial. Although such variants are (fortunately) exceedingly rare.

A Doomfire has a crew of 4: a pilot, a targeteer, a Heretek and a gunner (larger variants having more gunners)

The average Chaos carrier has between 60 and 80 on board (depending on mission) in squadrons of 4-6 (normally with a fighter or two attached as escort), there are many more on larger warships in the Chaos fleet.

DreadClaw Assault pod

These serve as both the means for Chaos space marines to assault a planet and to board enemy vessels. Unlike the Shark assault boat, they have no permanent crew at all (also rendering them steerless, reducing effective range) these are exceptionally common and used often by Chaos war fleets. They are also very small, largest variants not exceeding a combined length of 20 metres.

They operate quite simply by ramming into the hull of an enemy at extreme speeds (they have to be fast, since they can’t steer to adjust for evasive action like a Shark can) in great numbers and dislodge a small team of chaos space marines directly into the hull once the hull is breached by Melta charges. The large claws preventing the pod from being sucked out into space after making a breach.

Unlike the IN, every chaos carrier is equipped with assault pods. The average Chaos carrier has between 40 and 60 (depending on mission) which are fired off in ‘squadrons’ of between 6 and 8. Sometimes they are launched in much greater numbers however.

Ork Fighta

The umbrella term given to all Ork fighters that are capable only as fighter craft.They are generally capable of atmospheric and Void combat (although more often than not are equally as terrible in both environments) and can have vastly varied armaments, size, speed and protection: but they can be generalised. Most Ork Fightas have thier noses crammed with as many high caliber Autocannons and powerful Zzap cannons as the Orks can fit onto the chassis, sticking more onto the Wings until it is only barely flight worthy. The craft then has armour haphazardly bolted, welded and sometimes just dented on with strategically placed punching and hammer blows as they can possibly fit.

The now rather wonky and thrown-together creation is an Ork Fighta.Given the way that each craft can be so different from one another, it is impossible to make a size estimation, but they are generally quite stubby and fat due to all the armour bolted onto it and heavy ammo it is carrying. Mostly only piloted by the proud owner of the Fighta in question, but sometimes may have grots on board for mid-flight reloads if they weren't fortunate or didn't have the ‘teef’ to afford actual ammo feeds.

The only ‘redeeming’ value to these are that they are extremely numerous. Even the smallest Ork carriers somehow finding space crammed inside for anything up to a hundred of these in haphazard and non-uniform swarms. Orks liking to launch all of their strike craft at once, not understanding tactics and strategy very well. These swarms only get larger with more Ork ships and larger carriers.

Ork Fighta bommer

The umbrella term for Ork Fighters that can double in the anti-shipping role.Same as the Fighta, they double in the atmospheric and Void combat role; and are equally as haphazard and generally terrible in the fighter role. The main difference these have from the Fightas is that they are normally noticeably larger (although still so varied it’s hard to generalise) to accommodate room for crude bombs and rockets. These making them equally terrible as bombers.

They normally have a crew of two Orks, a rear gunner/bombardier and the pilot (optional grots also coming along or getting ‘accidently’ caught up in its gears as stowaways).

Again, like all Ork Strike Craft, their only real advantage is numbers. It being quite normal for most carriers to deploy hundreds of them at once.

Ork Bommer

The Ork bombers, and all their variants, are massive even by bomber standards.The huge craft are varied, like all Ork craft, beyond what can be reasonably generalised but there are three variants that are distinguished from each other by the Orks: the Bommer, the Eavy Bommer (as pictured) and the Blasta Bommer. All generally characterised by a ridiculously heavy armament of guns of all sizes and types and a massive armanet of missiles and bombs.

The Bommer is the smallest quickest, but none are by any means small or fast as most are around the size and dimensions of StarHawks.

The Eavy Bommer is more of a giant flying fortress than a strike craft. It barely moves, but can throw up a flack wall that can put some smaller warships to shame and has a payload that can crack open even the largest of ships.

The Blasta Bommer, which forgoes bombs and missiles to make room for a massive gun that you would normally find batteries of on the broadsides of a Lite Krooza or on the prow of an Ork escort. Of course such a weapon is prone to failure, and as much a danger to the strike craft firing as it is to whatever is on the receiving end.

Normally not as many of these are carried by Ork carriers as the Fightas and Fighta bommers, a limitation of their immense size, but the vast swarms are normally pock-marked with enough bommers of all shapes and sizes, making them an immense danger to any warship facing them.

Orks don’t really have assault craft. They just strap themselves to whatever flies in order to board ships.

DarkStar Fighter

Very little is known of this craft due to very few surviving encounters with them.At first glance, they appear similar to the Fury in shape and size (being quite large for a fighter at 60 metres in length), and their armament of 4 Star Cannons (one per wing-tip, two in the nose) are exceptionally deadly: but that is where similarities with the Fury ends.

For a start, she requires only a pilot: the GhostStar variant, not requiring any crew at all as they are piloted via spirit-stone.

They are nimble beyond imagining compared to any human craft, able to seemingly turn on the spot and immediately change course and direction: dodging even las bolts in mid-flight, this advantage only exaggerated by the Eldar pilotes super-human reaction speeds.It is also nightmarishly difficult to target, yet alone hit, a DarkStar. They have similar Holo-Field technology equipped Eldar warships, confusing augurs and cogitators into believing there are in fact hundreds, none of which may show the actual location of the DarkStar on scopes.

Fortunately for Imperial shipping, most don’t have any missile, torpedo or bomb armanet (although the Star Cannons can still do damage even to heavily armoured Imperial Escorts and System vessels) and are launched only in small squadrons that never exceed 4 craft. Eldar Corsair carriers also don’t carry very many strike craft.

Eagle Bomber

These are considered by many to be the deadliest bombers known to man.They have more in common with fighters than bombers. They are fairly small for bombers (80 metres in length roughly) and extremely nimble, able to easily outrun and outmaneuver most fighters. She typically has a crew of one, which is also unusual for a bomber (ghost variants having no crew). She also has the same holo fields as all Eldar spacecraft.

Her armaments for her size, however, are brutal. She has 2 Star Cannons and a downscaled Shadow Lance (all in the nose) and a small payload of very exotic warheads. While she never carries more than one torpedo, 10 bombs or 20 missiles the warheads are equipped with far deadlier ordnance. Sonic Charge Warheads can shake apart a ship or station to its very foundations and cause irreparable damage to the ship's innards, Vortex torpedoes can rip chunks of a ship’s hull in oblivion and Proton torpedoes can phase inside of even the thickest of armour and rend it from a ship's hull as it detonates from beneath.

Again, the Imperium counts itself fortunate that these bombers are not more numerous.

Where's your Federation now?-Imperial Navy

Alpha Tester - Getting the game on its feetTechnical Tester - We had to get the balance right somehowCommunity Moderator - Purging spammers and maintaining the realmBFG Wiki Founding Member

Port Maw is an artificial planet constructed on the orders of the Emperor himself during the opening stages of the Great Crusade. The eventual plan being that the Imperium would construct more Artificial planets: planets that were entirely self-sufficient and could produce weapons and men for the empire on a scale that would be difficult for a forge world or Hive World to match, the Emperor hoping to roll the two planet types’ roles into one and reduce the Imperiums reliance on the Mechanicus. Port Maw was to be the test bed.

Port Maw during the Horus Heresy

Construction was cut short by the Horus Heresy, and never restarted. The planet was used as a spaceport and the massive gaping hole in one side of the planet where the planet’s plasma core was to be inserted earned it the name ‘Port Maw’.Heretic forces attempted to take over Port Maw, but the loyal Imperial forces there were (barely) able to take back the port's defences from the attackers and maintain control of the Port itself. The conflict would simply be known as the Port Maw treason. It was here that Battlefleet Gothic was born from the ruined remains of the Imperial fleet there, made Port Maw their base, and rallied behind their flag ship Ark Imperial and awaited to establish contact with Terra. Sending out scouts and launching raids on heretic formations.

A Loyal Imperial Cruiser succumbing to enemy fire at the Port Maw treason.

It is also now the home base for Battle Fleets Agripinaa, Belis Corona, Cadia and Obscurus which all operate outside of the Gothic Sector from Port Maw. Large elements of Agripinaa would be caught in the Warp Storms that triggered the Gothic War and be trapped in the sector. The other Battle Fleets that call Port Maw their home base also rushing to Gothics aid after the Warp Storms lifted: Obscurus in particular, being double the size of BFG at its peak, sent a force that was greater than the total remaining Imperial forces in the sector at the end of the war.

The original intention of Port Maw is now long forgotten. It had vast facilities built across its surface and a massive ring, extending from the planet's surface, was built to make servicing of larger vessels easier.The port is surrounded by Ramilies Class Star Fortresses, which are the docking destinations of most of battlefleet Gothic’s Battle Groups (and one of them being the place your fleet is stationed in the game BFG:A). The Port was blockaded by Chaos forces in the Gothic War, and Abaddon attempted to assault the Port, but never got closer than these Star Fortresses.

Port Maw during the Gothic War

Barbarus Costa

A system a short way from Port Maw itself, it’s a system of 6 planets, all are occupied by Pirate warlords which conduct raids into neighbouring systems and on convoy supply chains. The system has three asteroid belts running through it, and another asteroid belt surrounding it with many fields spaced between these rings, making it perfect for Pirates to fight a gorilla war vs the Navy.

Due to its close proximity to Port Maw, Ravenburg made it a high priority target and assigned admiral Mourndark’s battlegroup of fast warships to deal with them. His battlegroup consists of 3 battlecruisers (all Overlord Classes) including his personal flagship the Cypra Probatii, 3 cruisers (2 Lunar Class, both would be lost in combat and converted to Dictators, and one Gothic), 5 light cruisers (1 defender class, 1 enforcer class, 3 dauntless: all lance armed) and 16 escorts (2 squadrons of 6 Cobra destroyers, one of them being the Widowmaker squadron who modified their vessels to allow them to warn the fleet early of Pirate attacks, and one squadron of 4 Firestorms).

Pirate forces in more detail:

The Pirate fleet consists almost entirely of escorts, a lot of them, at Barbarus III and IV the number of escorts deployed exceeded 200 warships at the height of the two battles, resulting in Mourndark losing both of his Lunar cruisers and several of his escorts; but the pirate warlords did posses capital ships.4 CLs were seen in combat at Barbarus III, 2 at Barbarus IV as well as a captured Gothic Cruiser, a captured Dauntless was destroyed by the Alien Bane in the outer rim of the system and a heavily customised Executor Class Grand Cruiser was used as a pirate warlord's flagship at Barbarus V: Mourndark personally destroying it at the helm of Cypra Probatii in a drawn-out gun fight.

The pirates in the system also made use of lots of mines, traps and hidden bases in the Barbarus Costa’s many asteroid belts and fields. This was the bane of Dux Cornovi who was disabled and scuttled by her crew to prevent capture, countless strike craft were lost also and at least one of Mourndark's Widowmakers. One of Mourndark's Overlords, His Will, Was immobilised by a mine and rushed by some 200 strike craft and several Tempest assault frigates. Mourndark was only able to save his comrade by throwing his ship between the tempests and the stricken battlecruiser, the combined defence batteries of Fortitude, the Sword of Retribution, His Will and the Cypra Probatii fending off the Strike Craft.

Blue Squadron's Firestorms also took damage from Strike Craft ambushes in the System’s outer rim, Sword of Orion also taking damage to her engines and Argur arrays from multiple brawls with Pirate escorts.

The Pirates also had countless asteroid bases in the belts, fields and orbiting the planets of the Barbus Costa system.

These bases acted as primary carrier stations for the vast swarms of Strike Craft together with bases on the surface of said planets. They also acted as centres of command and resistance in each of the Asteroid belts and fields. They also acted as space ports for repairing and maintaining the Pirate Escort fleet. The largest of these was found over Barbarus III, which was large enough to construct new escorts and service capital ships, other slightly smaller of these dry-dock sized stations discovered over Barbus IV and V.

Where's your Federation now?-Imperial Navy

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